Kensington Consulting
"2009 and 2010 have been very challenging years for the Engineering and Manufacturing sectors. These unprecedented times has resulted in the highest unemployment figures affecting white collar professionals/managerial positions for decades. Many companies have closed facilities, downsized operations and/or imposed pay freezes, which caused a serious decline in job opportunities in these sectors. Candidate confidence has been at an all time low with many reluctant to be the last employee in an organisation were skills/reputation is uncharted.
Decline in the number of vacancies has seen recruiters and direct clients experience significantly higher job applications, with many finding managing these applications a very challenging and labour intensive task. This has resulted in a breakdown in the relationship between the recruiter and candidate.
Poor communication levels and a lack of understanding of needs were amongst the major complaints from job seekers in 2009 and 2010, with many reporting being sent to interviews for the wrong job, salary expectations not being met at interview and a lack of preparation provided by Recruiters. In 2010 whilst a vast majority of our competition focused on client fees, we made the brave decision to focus on candidate service.
Feedback from candidates is absolutely essential to ensure a continuous improvement process exists and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the candidates who voted to allow us to receive a hat-trick of awards in 2010 including Best Overall Recruiter."
Celectus Recruitment Limited
"We are constantly asking candidates what they honestly like and dislike about the services we provide. This is so valuable. If we fail to gain feedback - good or bad - then we feel that we have failed our candidates.
From candidate feedback we know that whilst job seeking is exciting it can also be a time of uncertainty and insecurity. With this in mind we make it a company policy to respond to EVERY candidate that applies to us.
We also have a number of other initiatives in place based on candidate comments. For example, if candidates are forwarded for a vacancy we provide them with supporting information about the role that wouldn't be readily available and make sure that we are all fully informed about the relevant business areas or projects they will be working on. Due to the nature of our work there is often delay in gaining feedback; we are now in the process of implementing a tracker so that we keep every candidate informed about their status on a regular basis."
Networx
"Evaluating candidate feedback is the key to our continued success as it helps us to provide a quality candidate service. There is no way of doing effective recruitment without this.
We examine every piece of candidate feedback we receive and use it to tailor our service on an ongoing basis. One of the things that we now make a point of doing is providing regular and personal contact rather than automated responses. Something as simple as this has made a real difference to how candidates feel about jobhunting with us."
Cranleigh Recruitment Solutions
"It is of great benefit to us when we receive feedback from candidates - be it positive or negative. Positive feedback is always welcome - it is motivating to receive a pat on the back if things have gone well and we have provided a good service, but equally if things haven't gone so well we need to know about it, to ensure that any misunderstandings are rectified and to allow us to improve on the process and service that we offer to candidates.
We take all feedback we receive from candidates very seriously as it enables us to understand what parts of the recruitment process candidates find frustrating - and work on improving those areas.
From candidate comments we can see that one of their biggest frustrations is when there is a delay in getting back to them with client interview feedback. Often it's because we haven't heard from clients ourselves but by simply keeping the candidate informed of what is happening we have done much to eliminate this dissatisfaction. It is of most use to us when jobseekers give constructive, honest feedback - be it positive or negative. We can then respond accordingly which is the most effective way of promoting good service and helping to eliminate poor service - something we should all be striving to achieve."
ICQ Solutions
"We actively encourage candidates to give us honest feedback so that we can learn what is important to them. Our website now has a 'Candidate Centre' which was born from such feedback. In the early days we learnt that a big candidate bug bear was not even getting an acknowledgment from an agency that the CV had been received. So now we make sure that everyone receives at least an initial auto response email to say 'we got it, we will be in touch if we have anything for you'', it's important. We ensure that we are constantly adapting, to provide the best service you have to be responsive and fluid.
You also owe the candidate honest feedback, it's a two way process. We always do de-briefs so if the interview didn't go well we help the candidate to realise why and what they could do better for the next time. From listening to candidate feedback we know that they like us to be constructive and to pass on additional knowledge. We always ensure that we're professional and we try to coach our candidates."
ITS European
"RecruitRank has allowed good candidate feedback that has impacted positively on the way we work for the improvement of our services to both candidates and clients."
